Well, that Privileges Committee report is a corker. It’s not just throwing the book at Boris Johnson, but encasing it in concrete and lead and dropping it on him. Most people will feel it is richly deserved.
Daisy Cooper has called on Rishi Sunak to strip Boris Johnson of the £115,000 he gets from the public purse to fund his office as a result.
She said:
This damning report should be the final nail in the coffin for Boris Johnson’s political career. It is completely unprecedented for a former Prime Minister to be found to have been a law-breaker and serial liar, who treated the public and Parliament with total disdain.
Rishi Sunak must cut off Johnson’s ex-Prime Minister allowance to stop him milking the public purse for his own personal gain. Anything less would be an insult to bereaved families who suffered while Boris Johnson lied and partied.
The Conservatives are so mired in sleaze and chaos that they are totally failing to tackle the problems facing the country, from the NHS crisis to the cost of living. Voters in Mid Bedfordshire will soon get a chance to send a message to this failing and out-of-touch Conservative government.
Other Liberal Democrats have said:
Boris Johnson is a liar and law-breaker. He's treated the public with utter disdain.
And while these Conservatives fight among themselves again, the country suffers.
People are fed up. Rishi Sunak should call a General Election and give people the chance to end this charade.
— Ed Davey (@EdwardJDavey) June 15, 2023
If Sunak wants to show he has any backbone left he must finally do the right thing and kick the disgraced Boris Johnson out of the Conservative Party.
It was clear from day one that Johnson was never fit to be an MP let alone Prime Minister. pic.twitter.com/JXPxK8PKA3
— Wera Hobhouse MP 🔶 🇺🇦 (@Wera_Hobhouse) June 15, 2023
Boris Johnson has shown appalling contempt for the people he was meant to serve.
He decided he was above the rules that we all followed to protect our loved ones – and then lied about it.
I’m glad that he has been found guilty of misleading Parliament.
Justice has been served.
— Tim Farron (@timfarron) June 15, 2023
Tory dominated Priv Commitee report more coruscating than expected. Time for the #Conservatives to apologise for inflicting @borisJohnson a lying Charlatan, on the country at a time when it most needed integrity, leadership & honesty. #privilegesCommittee @LibDems #TorySleaze
— Dick Newby (@RichardNewby3) June 15, 2023
Johnson lied to the British people, he's demonstrated utter contempt for Parliament and he's shown absolutely no remorse.
Sunak needs to strip him of his ex prime ministers allowance and end the taxpayers support for a man who so clearly disdains the public. https://t.co/MtLHocp5GR
— Sarah Olney (@sarahjolney1) June 15, 2023
People across Scotland and the UK are sick of the sleaze, chaos and law-breaking that has come to define the Conservative party.
This report should be the final nail in the coffin for Boris Johnson’s political career and the Scottish Conservatives who endorsed and defended him. pic.twitter.com/oYJRkMIkrB
— Scottish Lib Dems (@scotlibdems) June 15, 2023
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9 Comments
Something sanction like this needs to be considered, but it needs to be framed in a way that sets a clear precedent, otherwise there is a risk that the committee does become the political football that Johnson so outrageously claims.
At the very least, the profligate expenditure on expensive lawyers could be recouped via the exPM allowances. The exPM status is quite special, it turns mature politicians into a kind of roving ambassador, which means they have obligations to political propriety that is not evident in Johnson or Truss, but is in Major, Blair and Brown (Cameron necessarily has to keep his head down).
All a bit Al Capone, isn’t it? What a weird political system where clapping in Westminster gets stern telling off, accusing someone of being a liar (now evidently true) gets you invited to leave and misleading parliament then breaching confidentiality of report is fatal to your services as an MP but so many deaths through dodgy Iraq war simply gets you a podcast, so many deaths through austerity gets you cushy job with Facebook or Evening Standard and so many deaths through covid can almost be forgiven until you lose the reputation of being a political winner.
For many today matters because of all the things we did during covid to protect people and how many lonely deaths there were while Westminster wasn’t setting an example. That shouldn’t be forgotten.
Boris only has himself to blame – not for lying (everyone knew he was a liar when he was elected) but for playing fast and loose with Parliament when setting out his various rules.
He chose to make rules and guidance (and conflated the two) via statutory instrument, published late at night, on a website that you could only navigate if you understood what you were looking for. Some of the rules made no sense – the rule of six the most widely known.
Boris and his colleagues should have presented the rules and guidance to Parliament for proper scrutiny. He could have explained then that he thought it was alright for people working in an office together to have a drink outside after work. Parliament should have made them do so.
But Boris didn’t trust us to look after ourselves. So he sought to circumvent scrutiny.
Ultimately, it’s not the lying that riles the public, but the arrogance of “one rule for us, one rule for them”. Boris and Gove didn’t trust the public because they knew the lies they were telling during the Brexit referendum (remember the bus) – and how the public fell for them.
The Tory Paety knew Johnson was a lying buffon when they elected him to be their leader (and Prime Minister).
This whole saga tells you as much about the Tory Party as it does about Johnson.
There was a time when lying to the HoC was a resignation matter. (Profumo), and even Tories supported that. We have now had 2 PMs who lied, Blair and Johnson. None quite so blatant as Johnson. No apology, no contrition, just blame everyone else. Of the 17 PMs in my lifetime Johnson is so far beyond the pale that he cannot be equalled. He deserves everything that he gets.
If we support the findings of the Committee – and we should have no doubt how severe they are – then I don’t think it is appropriate for us to call for even more punishment than they recommend. Many of the people we must attract to our cause in by-elections and the next general election voted for Johnson quite recently. Many of them will now realise that this was the wrong decision and hopefully will see the Lib Dems as offering a better future. They may well think enough is enough in personal vilification.
I heartily support Daisy Cooper’s call for the £115,000 a year to fund his office to be blocked. With his earning power Johnson doesn’t need it. It is a recent idea and, it it is clear from his past record that he will use it to fund his career and lifestyle rather than for any other cause, good or otherwise. The “grant,” if it is continued for future prime ministers, should be conditional on a minimum time in office and an honourable manner of leaving it.
It is a terrible indictment on this country that more people on Personal Independence Payment face the inside of a courtroom than MPs and Cabinet Members who break the rules.
We all knew Johnson was a liar right from the start. We don’t really need to read Harriet Harman’s report to tell us that. A politician lying to Parliament is, for some reason, considered to be a cardinal sin whereas lying to the voters is considered to be part of the game.
If I had to choose, I’d prefer it to be the other way around!
For example: it’s not just Keir Starmer’s Labour which is “completely unrecognisable” from what it was just a few years ago. It’s Keir Starmer himself too!